


feel the tide

by archiveofyoumom



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Angst, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Minor Violence, POV Bucky Barnes, Psychological Trauma, Quote: I'm with you 'til the end of the line, Winter Soldier Bucky Barnes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-11
Updated: 2020-03-11
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:07:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 631
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23101453
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/archiveofyoumom/pseuds/archiveofyoumom
Summary: it's the soldier who jumps into the Potomac after Steve, and it's Bucky who pulls them both out
Comments: 4
Kudos: 7
Collections: Wilder Mind





	feel the tide

**Author's Note:**

> this was going to be a part of a longer thing but i kinda like it alone. if you like my writing style, check out the rest of the collection:)

But you and I now  
we can be alright  
just hold on to what we know is true  
you and I now  
though it's cold inside  
feel the tide turning

\- "Feel the Tide" Mumford and Sons

The sky is falling down around them. Or rather, the sky is falling and they are going down with it.

The helicarrier is losing altitude fast, but it feels like the whole world is crumbling for the two men standing there, facing each other, bleeding. The captain's shield drops and becomes yet another piece of debris hurtling toward the ground below. He will not fight the Winter Soldier. The ghost story. Bucky. _You're my friend_ , he says. He can't do this all day.

_You're my mission!_ The Winter Soldier screams. He is full of anger and confusion- gone feral with it. He could have killed Steve ten times over by now. When he had decided to call the man Steve, he did not know. His brain is setting off alarm signals that have nothing to do with the pain of his injured body. He is so so confused he just wants the noise to stop. Maybe if the Soldier can finish his mission, kill the captain, finish what he was sent here to do, then the noise will stop.

His cybernetic arm can't feel things the way his human one can, but it still registers the crunch of bones in Steve's face as he brings it down again and again and again and-

_Then finish it. 'Cause I'm with you… 'till the end of the line._

The Soldier freezes there, poised but unable to make his body respond. He is caught in the bruised, half-lidded blue eyes of the man he is about to kill. Then the metal under him gives way to the sky and the smoke and river. Steve is no longer pinned beneath him, but falling falling falling. He is the only one up there, hanging by his metal arm. The noise in his head is louder than ever- louder than the noise of the destruction around him- as he watches the murky expanse open wide and swallow the captain. It's not until after he lets go does he wonder if he can survive the fall.

The smoke prevents him from being able to see, so he plummets through an unbroken haze of obscurity, unable to properly brace himself for impact. He hits the water hard. He feels his ankle give- it is fractured at least. Icy shock fills his nose and ears and limbs. For a moment he is still, suspended in time by the river. Debris is rushing past him on all sides like lethal asteroids. A piece of metal catches him in the side, piercing through his body armor and jolting him into action. He crawls through the darkness towards where he pictures the captain sinking.

He sees the suit first. The red white and blue. How much of that red is blood? Steve's face is ethereal in the stormy half-light. The soldier wonders how much oxygen he has left before the hallucinating starts, or if it already has. The captain feels solid enough when he grabs him by the front of his uniform with the metal arm, so he decides brain hypoxia has not yet set in. He begins the abored ascent towards the surface. His movements are slow, leadened. His lungs are burning. And some part of him watches, amused by his body's relentless fight for survival.

Bucky breaks the surface first, coughing up water and blood, before dragging Steve onto the muddy riverbank behind him. The Soldier stands over him, staring at his broken face, the face he had broken. He stands there until the captain finally takes a weak, watery breath. Then he walks away.


End file.
